


The Night of Fever and Fear

by sungabraverday



Category: Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-01
Updated: 2012-07-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 23:45:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sungabraverday/pseuds/sungabraverday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate point of view of the night Ezinma is taken to the oracle's cave. Originally written for a homework assignment in my World Lit class.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Night of Fever and Fear

Through the _iba_ , through the uncertainty and heat it threw on everything, I heard her call. I heard her call, and I was scared. The voice was not that of Cheilo, my mother’s friend, but that of Cheilo, Agbala’s oracle, and I was frightened. Why did the priestess want me? Why now?

Ekwefi must have been concerned too, for she placed me atop the bamboo bed, with an egg for me to eat. And though I adore eggs, fear and fever quashed my appetite as the priestess shouted at my mother and father for trying to prevent her access. I was terrified.

It was not long before Ekwefi returned, and leaving the uneaten egg behind, ushered me from our hut to the priestess. She greeted me as her daughter. Because I was shaking and crying from fever and terror, I couldn’t protest when I was lifted onto the priestess’s back. Ekwefi gave me some fish to eat, and told me not to cry. Holding on and being held by the oracle, I fell into a feverish sleep, plagued by uncertain nightmares.

I was awoken by the need to sneeze. As Cheilo said the customary response, I thought I heard another person whisper the same. I would have suspected that I was dreaming, but immediately Cheilo was yelling at someone for following us. I will never know who, or if they continued, for I soon fell prey to those dark phantasms of my feverish sleep once again.

The next time I escaped from the nightmares, it was only to hear Cheilo yelling, shouting to Umuachi – the farthest village from our own. We had – or the priestess had, for I had done no work – travelled an incredible distance. But we had not yet visited the hills and the cave. Far more was yet to come, but as the moon rose, I could not return to my fevered state – instead, it came to me.

The moon left shadows that changed every object into a transforming terror – a lion, a hunter, a vengeful spirit. I wanted so desperately to return to my fitful sleeping – anything rather than this. As we neared the caves, the shapes grew blurrier, but all the more frightening. The priestess’s voice grew in both volume and persistence, holding me from the step I wished to take towards sleep. Finally, sparing me from this agony, we reached the hills, and entered the cave.

Inside the cave was darker than anything I have ever known. Cheilo continued to chant, and it echoed off all the sides of the rock, growing continually louder as the cave widened and grew, until the priestess ceased chanting and lay me down. She said something strange to the god, asking him to break my curse and so ease Ekwefi’s suffering. She scratched my arm and offered my blood to the earth, connecting me forever to Agbala, and so tying me to life on this world.

Why the priestess wanted me tied to this world would not be understood for many years, but it was clear I needed to live, though whether it was for her human desire or her godly one is still mysterious. But as we left the cave, my parents were waiting, watching, protecting me, through the shadows of the night, and into the dawn.


End file.
